54 Notices respecting Nfw Boohs. 



of seeing. Wiieii fixing tiiein, Dr. R. said, " Now close your 

 eyelids," to which an answer was retnrned bv some one, " You 

 were not f-o particular with Miss M'Avov." Kowevei, the re- 

 qnest was complied with, and wiien the bandages were properly 

 placed, a watch was presented, and l/ie tioiir was intmtdiately 

 proiwunced ; a glove was given, and the lolaur was told ; a letter 

 was produced, wlitcli was read ivil/i grcut JacHity, although the 

 writing was very small." — 



" Tiie coining and aoing of the power is a most convenient 

 resource. As Saiicho says or sleep, it covers her over " like a 

 cloak." Whenever anyniiusual means are adopted to blindfold 

 her, she becomes agitated, she cannot proceed — the pov/er goes. 

 Her medical friends all agree in stating her to possess ey.cessive 

 sensibility ; but may not the dread of tletecHun jjroduce this agi- 

 tation ? It is surely as reasonable, (tiiougli not perhaps so cour- 

 teous) to inipute it to this, as to a high indignant feeling of sus- 

 pected integrity. At other times, willuiiit being agitated, she loses 

 tlie power; every attention is paid to her, bandages are loosened, 

 and coverings removed ; — after a short time experiments are re- 

 sumed, and she succeeds : — Is it uncliaritable to say, that in the 

 one case she was completeiv i)lindfi)lde(!, tliat in the olher she 

 was not ? If, u'hen s!ie declared she ahvavs found it necessary 

 that the breath of her nostrils should fall upon the object pre- 

 sented, she had stopped short at telhng colours and reading with 

 h-T fingers, she would b.ave been less vuhieral)le ; but suddenly 

 she evinced new powers, to which her breath could not bv possi- 

 bility be necessary : she began to distinguish objects which she 

 could neither touch nor breathe upon — she could not touch the 

 dial-plate of a watch, yet she told the hour bv feeling at the 

 glass ; she began to name colours placed behind her back : of 

 what use tiien was her breath ? — It could not in either case be 

 of the lea'it importance to the developement of these powers. 

 When by putting out her feelers, (just as a snail protrudes its 

 horns on issuing from its shell,) she distinguished through a win- 

 do w, and at the distance of twenty or thirty yards, men labouring 

 at their vocation, the absurdity of the thing could have no pa- 

 rallel but in the attempt to explain it by the intervention and in- 

 fluence of the breath. This declaration regarding her breath is 

 most important, and gives the key to the whole mystery. 



'■' Having shown that her breath is not always necessary to her 

 performances, I shall proceed to show that this is not the only 

 instance in which she proves too much. Her followers sav that 

 her eyes are blind, and that she reads by the agency of her fingers ! 

 What is the nature of this agency ? If it be the sense of touch, 

 she would be able to read in the dark as well as in the light ; but 

 on one occasion, when Dr. Traill proposed that the room should 



be 



